STATE JOBLESS RATE FALLS TO 4.6%

Florida's unemployment rate dropped in August to 4.6 percent from 5.2 percent in July, but economists cautioned against reading too much optimism into the figures.

The nation's jobless rate edged down to 5.6 percent in August from 5.7 percent a month earlier, with a gain of 249,000 jobs, nearly 100,000 more than economists had predicted.

Of 11 industrial states, Florida and North Carolina tied for the lowest unemployment rate. California's rate of 7.8 percent was the highest.

"The economy looks like it's operating at just the right pace," said economist Mark Zandi of Regional Financial Associates in West Chester, Pa. "It's not too hot, which would result in inflationary pressures developing, and it's not too cold, which would result in rising unemployment."

Of the Florida unemployment report, Department of Labor economist Pamela Schenker said, "It's a positive sign [but) we'd like to wait for several months to see if this level would be sustained."

Schenker said the drop in Florida's unemployment rate from July to August was a marginal change. However, the difference in the rate from August 1994's rate of 5.7 percent is significant, she said. The unemployment rate measures only the number of people looking for jobs.

Last month in Florida, 6,485,000 people had fullor part-time jobs and another 315,000 were looking for work. In July, 6,573,000 people were employed and 357,000 were in the job market.

Economist Carol Taylor West at the University of Florida said the lower unemployment rate came about through a drop of 88,000 in the number of people employed, as well as a drop of 42,000 in the number of unemployed.

"It's not really clear we have improved the status of people who were unemployed," she said.

Florida has, however, showed a significant gain in jobs over the past year. Department of Labor economist Bruce Thomson noted that between July 1994 and July 1995, 200,000 jobs were created statewide, almost a quarter of them in South Florida.

Economists said it is difficult to tell exactly where the new jobs are, or how many of them are desirable jobs.

Contract and temporary work segments have been growing strongly. Nationally, unemployment fell for most groups except young black men, for whom the rate rose, figures show.